Is it a problem?

Hi there, this is my first time growing at home and after my first flush I soaked the cake and then I started seeing a few aborts and also some kind of "retarded" mushrooms. Also today i saw the color change on stems of two biggest fruits. One more thing, why caps have such a greyish hue?

In my first flush i had fuzzy feet problem even though i faned the bag multiple times a day, but I believe that high humidity was the problem.

Can someone help me in this what the problem is abd shoud i toss the cake completely?

Hello! Some aborts (stalled shrooms, usually with black caps) on the cake after soaking, cold shocking and just during the flush is completely normal. More pins popping up on your cake, and that's good!

Regarding your concerns about greyish powdery caps, discoloration on the stems (I mean brown necrotic lession on the biggest shrooms — the 1st and 3rd photos) and bended mushroom with "hair lip" defect (the 1st photo, small shroom in red circle) — these are all symptoms of Dry Bubble disease (Verticillium contamination). Here is a draft of my write up on this topic, but you can already check the info and photo examples: https://shroomok.com/gallery/dry-bubble-verticillium

However, don't rush to toss the cake, as I'm not 100% sure about your case at the moment! Let's do the following: let the mushrooms grow for now and share photos in 2-3 days. I'll check them again

Ok great. Really appreciate your help. Will post in 3 days and se what is going on.

Alright. Here is an update.

Now it looks very apart abd there are a few younger fruits which seems to get infected day by day, as soon as they get infected the growth stops and starts decaying.

I've read about these contams you mentioned and these don't look like a ferfect example of any of contaminations. Only the one curved having the cap turned out.

Looking forward to learn something new out of this experience.

Thanks

Your new shrooms look pretty good (blue circles in the photo). But the prev. shrooms still have greyish powdery velvety cover (red circles). I don't see any dry necrotic damages on the stems and caps though, which is a good sign!

Could you pls make a Qtip test? (for mushroom caps in the red circles)

Verticillium spores are sticky. So take a clean cotton swab and swipe the caps. Do you see grey powder on it? If no — it's fine. If yes — probably contamination spores on caps.

P.S. I've already finished Dry Bubble disease (Verticillium) write up ;)

https://shroomok.com/gallery/dry-bubble-verticillium

Thanks a lot on everything you say, it helps a lot.

I did a Qtip test and it surprised me. As it is visible on photos after rubbing cotton at caps the cap became clean like normal cap, but on the cotton swab the color is green-bluish and only after harder rubbing it appears, I don't see any grey color on it.

Here are the pics of it.

Maybe to add a few more things. After soking the cake after first flush, the cake had the odor like it started fermenting but it disappeared two days later. The fruits in question emerged day or two after soking the cake. The odor now is very similar to damp stalled air, none of the bad bad odor like sour and i fan 3 to 5 times a day. Also i see a few fruits that is only a cap without a stem that are emerging on the cake circled in blue.

Thanks for all your help and article

Green-bluish color, especially after hard rubbing is bruising. So, it's fine! But be gentle with your shrooms :) More info here: https://shroomok.com/en/wiki/Mycelium_Bruises_or_Mold_Contamination Unfortunately, I can't clearly see the color tint and texture on the swab. Therefore, I rely on your sensations and detailed descriptions.

Regarding fermenting smell after soaking it is a mild bacterial/yeast contamination. How long did you soak the cake? You can't fix it since it's in your substrate inside. It's not dangerous, just dry your mushrooms properly after harvesting and avoid rotted fruits.

If I gently rub the swab against the mushroom there were no traces of anything on the swab on cap there were visible clean traces. Why I tried harder to rub it was simply because I didn't see any traces on the swab and did only on affeced fruits. Now I looked closer and it looks like thin fluffy layer very similar to mycelium i have seen on some photos of fuzzy feet and touching it, it disapears and the surface looks clean like on photos.

I soaked the cake for 10 hours and still I am not sure if it was fermentation because the smeel was exactley the same as of fresh truffles I bought once. This odor disappeared two days later. Now it has been 12 days since soaking up the cake.

One more thing I can think of is that after soaking up the cake I used a piece of cardboard to fan the bag because I experienced fuzzy feet in the last flush which I stopped before those "healthy" looking mushrooms appeared. Now I only open the bag for a few minutes and close it.

This is my first grow ever and still learning.

I am thinking of taking out all these suspicious fruits and see what is going to happene with the rest. What are your thoughts?

It's a good sign if the smell has disappeared. Don't soak mushroom cake for too long. 1-4 hrs is more than enough — depending on how dehydrated the cake. Sometimes just hard misting is enough.

Mycelium layer on caps is also fine. Now we know the answer ;)

Sure you can pick that "questionable" mushrooms and see what happens next. Try to open your bag more often — 3-5 times/day for about 5 mins.

Waiting for updates from you :)

There are many different oppinions on how long to soak the cake, usually I see from 8 to 24 hours. Currently the cake shrank, aproximately 5%. So next time if get to it, will do shorter.

After taking out those questionable fruits I see that they were brised without me touching them, also I see that the biggest one currently is getting bruised beneath the cap. I have read on your gides that bruising mihgt happen if it is fanned harder.

Could it be possible that mutation happened as I found small bubble-like fruits, only cap without a stem?

Will update you in a week or so when I see how it will turn out.

Thanks for your help 🙏

Along with normal mushrooms, mutated and aborted mushrooms can appear on the cake. So yes, it's possible!